


Conversational Spanish 101

by heklin



Category: Dear Evan Hansen - Pasek & Paul/Levenson
Genre: Community AU, Community College, M/M, idk I wanted to write it so I did!!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2018-07-10
Packaged: 2019-06-08 13:48:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15244755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heklin/pseuds/heklin
Summary: Evan creates a fake study group in an attempt to get closer to the girl from his Spanish class who doodles little aliens on her assignments and smiles a lot. He ends up with a real study group and a tiny crush on her brother.





	Conversational Spanish 101

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this like a month ago after rewatching the first ep of community and uhhh yeah. idk where I was going with it but here u go! 
> 
> tw for: mention of a suicide attempt

“So then I let him shove the _entire_ thing up my ass.”

“Right,” Evan says distractedly, thoughts racing. Then he snaps out of it as he fully registers the sentence that just came out of Jared’s mouth. “Wait, _what?”_

“Aha!” Jared shouts, pointing an accusing finger at Evan. “I knew you weren’t paying attention.”

For someone Evan only met a week ago, Jared is...a lot. “Sorry, just—” Evan cranes his neck in an attempt to keep the prettiest girl he’s ever seen in his line of sight. He’s been staring at her for the duration of this whole conversation, imagining scenarios in which he’s brave enough to introduce himself to her. “Do you know her name?”

Jared turns to look. “The girl from Spanish?”

“Yeah.”

“I think it’s Zoe.”

Evan sighs.

“Dude, you have literal heart eyes right now,” Jared says with a snort. “It's kind of pathetic.”

“She seems really nice,” Evan says defensively. “I wish I could just, I don’t know, go up and _talk_ to her or—”

“Well, keep wishing, bro. Girls like that don’t associate with guys like...” A pause. “Well. You know.”

And with that, Jared grins, claps him on the shoulder, and walks off in the direction of the courtyard.

For some reason, Jared has been hanging around Evan ever since their first Spanish class together. It’s a little strange, but Evan isn’t going to complain about it. After all, this is his first year here, while it’s Jared’s second, which means that Jared knows his way around campus and has more than a handful of friends by now. Evan is very socially awkward, so it’s nice to have a few acquaintances by association. He also gets lost easily, and it’s a relief to have someone he can send a panicked text to when he can’t find the science building even though he’s been there many times by now. Jared will call him and give him directions, and he only makes fun of him a little bit.

When Evan reluctantly made the decision to sign up for classes, he thought maybe it would help him step out of his comfort zone. Get out of the rut he fell into in high school. But instead, he’s just...stayed the same.

And unfortunately, he _does_ know what Jared means. Evan is an anxious mess with way too many issues for anyone to handle. Zoe seems sweet and funny and she’s definitely out of his league.

He sighs again, adjusts his jacket self-consciously, and makes his way to class.

-

Evan enters the cafeteria the next day and immediately spots Zoe. She’s sitting at a small table next to the wall of windows, and she has a textbook open in front of her. She looks frustrated.

Evan hears Jared’s voice in his head, saying, _“Girls like that don’t associate with guys like...well.”_ And then suddenly, heart fluttering, he’s walking over to her table.

“Hey,” he greets tentatively.

Zoe looks up, eyes unfocused for a moment before her gaze sharpens. “Hey,” she says. “Evan, right?”

Evan almost wants to bounce up and down out of sheer joy. “Yeah! And you’re...” He trails off, gesturing vaguely with one hand. He already _knows_ who she is, of course, but he wants to come off as cool and laid-back. Chill. Casual.

“Zoe,” she says with a radiant smile. Then she glances back down at the textbook, twirling a highlighter between her fingers, and sighs. “Sorry, you seem nice, it’s just, I can’t really talk right now? I’m super busy trying to study for this Spanish test.”

“Oh,” Evan says, stomach sinking. He forces himself to nod and smile. Then an idea forces its way into his head, and before he can think better of it, he’s blurting out, “Actually, that’s what I came over here to talk to you about! Spanish. I mean, I wanted to let you know about my...study group.”

Zoe tilts her head. “The guy watching vine compilations on his laptop during class has a study group?”

Evan resists the urge to tug on the hem of his shirt or crack his knuckles or bite his nails—nervous habits he’s trying very hard to kick—and says, in what he hopes is a convincing tone, “I’m taking that class for an easy credit? I actually tutor Spanish, I’m...board certified and everything.”

She quirks an eyebrow. “Can you say that in Spanish?”

“Totally, of course, um—duermo tarde clase, el perro ladra. Yo tutor Español.”

Zoe squints at him for a long moment. Then she sighs again and sits back. “I _really_ need help with Spanish.”

 _This is wrong, this is bad, you should not be doing this, you only know like a handful of phrases in Spanish, this is gonna backfire_ —

“The group meets in the library at six?”

“I’ll be there,” Zoe says. “Thank you so much, this is great.”

 _This is terrible,_ Evan thinks, feeling guilty beyond belief as he gives her a tiny, forced grin and walks out of the cafeteria.

-

“Bienvenido. Bienvenido,” Evan mutters to himself. He’s in one of the library study rooms, trying to absorb as much as he can from his Spanish textbook, but he’s having a little trouble focusing. A lot of trouble focusing.

He lied to Zoe, and there’s no way he can keep this up because he doesn’t know any fucking Spanish, which means she’s going to find out and then he’ll definitely have no chance with her and he’ll be known as the creep who tried to get with a girl by _making up a fake study group_. Oh god. He’ll have to transfer. He has to tell her the truth before this goes any further.

“Hey.”

Evan spins around in his chair. Zoe stands in the entrance, wringing her hands a little. She’s wearing the same outfit she was wearing earlier—a pink T-shirt that says “life is good” and overalls—but with a plaid flannel on top, and she has her backpack slung over one shoulder.

“Bienvenido!” he says as cheerfully as he can. “Have a seat. I mean, if you want to, then—please.”

She laughs and sits down on the adjacent side of the table, to his right. He fumbles around in his backpack for a notebook, then places it in front of her.

“You can put your contact info on here. I guess the rest of the group is running late? But, um, we can—get acquainted.” He can’t even hold back his wince after that.

_What happened to telling the truth, you giant idiot?_

Zoe jots something down on an empty page. Her handwriting is neat and bubbly. “You may have noticed earlier, I’m not so great at small talk,” she says kind of sheepishly, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

“No, that’s totally okay, neither am I,” Evan says hastily.

She props her chin on her hand, regarding him in a way that makes him want to squirm. “But we can talk big,” she states finally. “What’s your deal?”

“My—my deal?” Evan stammers, shaking his head in confusion.

“You know. Like, why’re you here, what are you doing at community college...”

“Oh, um. My deal.” Evan looks down at the table, and then promptly _word-vomits_ all over the place. “I took a gap year after high school and worked at Pottery Barn for a while, and then I got fired, and after that I decided to enroll here? Because it’s cheap and my mom’s a nurse’s aid and she works a lot, and we’ve always kind of struggled to make ends meet so I’m also trying to find another job right now because...of that. If it were up to me I probably wouldn’t even be here, I just feel so guilty about it, but she really wants me to like, further my education and...and stuff. So yeah.”

“Why’d you get fired from Pottery Barn?” Zoe asks, not missing a beat.

“I had a panic attack in front of like thirty people during Christmas time?” Evan’s cheeks burn at the memory. “And my boss didn’t know what to do, like they didn’t really have time to deal with it, so...”

She makes a face. “Yikes.”

“What’s—what’s _your_ deal?” he asks, desperate to change the subject, to get the spotlight off of himself.

“Here’s my deal.” She grins. “After high school, I joined a band and traveled a bunch, which was fun, until my brother tried to kill himself and I had to come back home. My parents have been really worried about him since then, and they were already kinda disappointed that I was dicking around for a year instead of going to college like they wanted, so I decided I should take a few classes or something. Kind of like letting them know, ‘hey, maybe you went wrong with one kid, but the other turned out okay after all.’”

Evan has no idea what to say to that. “I’m—I’m really sorry about your brother.”

She shrugs one shoulder. “I guess I just thought going to an actual university would be too much pressure, and I don’t want that right now, you know?” When she pauses, Evan nods for her to continue. “But I think above all, my deal is...honesty. Be honest with me, and I’ll like you. Because I may be trying to figure out this whole adult thing with absolutely no clue what I’m doing, but I’m doing it having learned that what’s most important to me is honesty.”

_Fuck._

Evan grips the edge of his seat so hard his fingers hurt. “Good to know.”

“What’s most important to you?” she asks, smiling like someone who’s oblivious to the irony of this whole situation.

“Um, honesty,” he says, nodding and forcing a smile. “Definitely honesty, um, as well.”

The door opens behind them, and when Zoe glances over, her expression sort of hardens. Evan turns to see a guy around their age gripping the door handle. He’s tall, has his hair tied back in a messy bun, and he’s wearing a T-shirt that looks handmade. It has “I HATE the Smiths” written on it in messy Sharpie.

Evan’s brain sort of short-circuits, and then his first thought is _oh no he’s hot._

“Evan, this is my brother Connor,” says Zoe, and the way she says it makes it sound like a question.

 _Oh no he’s her_ brother _and he’s hot!!!_

Connor raises his hand in greeting, and Evan gives an awkward little wave back.

“I’m not trying to crash on...whatever this is,” Connor says slowly.

“Spanish study group,” Evan blurts out, feeling his cheeks heat up.

Connor gives him a strange look. “Right. It’s just, I kinda have nowhere else to go, so.”

“I’m his ride,” Zoe explains to Evan, then says to her brother, “I mean, I did invite other people? So I guess it’s fine if you hang out here. As long as you promise to be nice.”

Connor rolls his eyes and grins, sitting down across from her. Evan is so distracted by his _face_ and the fact that he’s _staying_ that he almost doesn’t catch what Zoe said.

“You invited other people?” he squeaks.

At that exact moment, a girl he recognizes from around campus walks in, with Jared trailing a few feet behind her. When he sees Evan, understanding seems to dawn on his face, and then he’s rubbing his hands together gleefully as he sits down across from him.

“ _You’re_ the board certified tutor,” Jared says, leaning back and raising one eyebrow.

The girl—Evan thinks her name is Alana—takes the seat next to Connor and says, “Can I just ask, what kind of board certifies a tutor?”

“Um,” Evan stammers. Everyone’s eyes are on him. He pulls out his phone, hands shaking. “Sorry, haha, I got a text, let me just—” He types out a quick message to Jared, then hits send and shoots a pointed look at him.

Jared’s phone lights up on the table a second later, and he picks it up and reads out loud, “‘Say you have to pee I need to talk to you.’”

Evan squeezes his eyes shut, cheeks burning with embarrassment and mortification, and when he opens his eyes, the group is still staring at him, with varying expressions. Alana seems confused. Zoe’s eyes are narrowed in suspicion. Connor looks annoyed, with his arms crossed loosely over his chest, but also...amused?

“‘Say you have to pee I need to talk to you,’” Jared repeats more slowly, as if everyone didn’t hear him the first fucking time. He holds up his phone with a shit-eating grin. “What a _weird_ text!”

“Very weird,” Connor agrees.

Evan inhales through his nose. Exhales through his mouth. “Yes, that’s very weird,” he says, then gestures awkwardly as he continues, trying to keep the irritation out of his voice, “Oh hey Jared, could I by any chance, I dunno, _talk_ to you outside?”

Jared snorts and gets up. It feels like the weight of Connor’s gaze is boring holes into Evan’s jacket.

“Okay dude,” Jared says once they’re outside. “I know you’re not really a tutor, so wanna tell me what the hell is going on?”

For some reason, Evan’s first instinct is to _keep lying,_ even though he _knows_ he can’t lie to Jared because Jared already knows he sucks at Spanish. “I am a tutor!” he sputters. “I’m—”

“You got a 32 on the last quiz,” Jared cuts in, unimpressed. “Who are you trying to fool?”

Evan sighs, looking down at his shoes. “Zoe?” he says meekly.

Jared snorts again. “You created a fake study group to get into Zoe’s pants?”

“I wasn’t trying to get—it’s not like that.”

“Still, holy shit, what was your plan? Invite her to the library, ask her out on a date, try to learn the entire Spanish language before the next study session?”

Evan’s about to say that he doesn’t know, that he didn’t think that far ahead, that he wishes he would have never approached Zoe in the cafeteria. He wishes he’d just kept his mouth shut like always and admired her from afar, because whenever he opens his mouth he gets himself into messes like this.

The door opens. Out comes the rest of the  _study group,_ plus Connor.

“Okay, what’s going on?” Zoe demands, looking a little pissed off.

A beat of silence, and then—

“Evan’s not a tutor,” Connor says calmly. His hands are shoved in his pockets. When everyone whirls on him, he narrows his eyes. “What? I’m right, aren’t I? I mean, it's really fucking obvious.”

“Yeah,” Evan confirms quietly. His legs are threatening to give out, so he sits down on the front steps and puts his head in his hands. “I’m really sorry, I have really bad anxiety and I had a problem with compulsive lying in high school and I thought I was over it but I’m—I don’t actually have a study group. I made it up because I wanted to be friends with you. Um, Zoe. I’m—I’m so sorry.”

Another beat of silence, and then they all start whispering—not as quietly as they’re probably going for. Dread and self-hatred curl in the pit of Evan’s stomach as he listens, wanting to punch himself in the face.

“Will you just wait? He looks so—sad—”

“Oh my god, no, I’m leaving.”

“What is wrong with you?”

“What’s wrong with _me?_ He’s the one who lied to try to—”

“Be your friend?”

“If you want to be friends with someone, you don’t go about it like _this!”_

A long pause.

“There’s still the Spanish test tomorrow,” Jared supplies kind of unhelpfully.

“Fuck, okay, fine," Zoe hisses. "But I’m still really pissed.”

Another long pause, and then Alana says loudly, “Okay. We have around fourteen hours until the test. If we cram really hard and take fifteen-minute power naps every hour and a half, I’m confident that we can all pass.”

Evan lifts his head, bewildered, to see that the three of them are looking right back at him. “What?”

Zoe huffs and stares at the ground, arms crossed. “You may not be a Spanish tutor, but that doesn’t mean we can’t all study together.”

“I don’t understand,” Evan says meekly. He glances at Connor, who’s inspecting his nail polish.

“You’re getting a second chance,” Connor says without tearing his gaze away from his nails. “Don’t blow it.”

Evan swallows hard and gets up to follow everyone back inside.

**Author's Note:**

> translation of what evan says to zoe in spanish: "I sleep late class, the dog barks. I tutor spanish"
> 
> connor's shirt: https://www.etsy.com/listing/597419108/i-hate-the-smiths-t-shirt?ref=shop_home_active_10 (the whole shop is gold btw, check it out)
> 
> I might write a second chapter to this in which evan and connor actually interact more, but let's just say it's not coming any time soon (because I don't wanna commit to anything when I already have like ten other fics in progress ksdkghj)
> 
> thanks for reading!


End file.
